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Wednesday, January 2, 2019

In 1993 the current Fed Chairman (Jerome Powell) began working as a managing
director for Bankers Trust, but he quit in 1995 after the bank got into trouble
when several customers suffered large losses due to derivatives (like Goldman
Sach's CDs that helped create the Great Recession). Powell then went to work for
Dillon, Read & Co -- an investment bank. Then from 1997 to 2005, Powell was
a partner at The Carlyle Group, where he founded and led the Industrial Group
within the Carlyle U.S. Buyout Fund (a private investment firm). After leaving
Carlyle, Powell founded Severn Capital Partners, another private investment firm
(a corporate raider like Bain Capital). In 2008, Powell became a managing
partner of the Global Environment Fund, a private equity and venture capital
firm that invests in sustainable energy (like windmills).

Between 2010 and 2012, Powell was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy
Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C. (similar to a Bush/Clinton "Third
Way" political firm) where he worked for getting Congress to raise the
United States debt ceiling during the "debt crisis" in 2011. Then in
December that same year Jerome Powell was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board
of Governors by President Obama. Powell took office on May 25, 2012. (In June
2014 Powell was confirmed by the Senate for a 14-year term on the board ending
on January 31, 2028.)

On October 9, 2013 Janet Yellen was nominated by Obama to replace Ben Bernanke
as Chair of the Federal Reserve. Yellen defended the more than $3 trillion in
stimulus funds that the Fed had been injecting into the U.S. economy (Remember
the bank bailouts and the huge bonuses they paid themselves?). On January 6,
2014 Yellen was confirmed as Chair of the Federal Reserve and took office on
February 3, 2014. Later on December 15, 2015 Yellen increased its key interest
rate for first time since 2006 to 0.50 percent. Then the month after Donald
Trump had been elected, Yellen raised the interest rate again to 0.75 percent on
Dec. 14, 2016. Under Yellen, the Fed had hiked interest rates four times. In
addition, the Fed had been unwinding its balance sheet, which primarily consists
of bonds the Fed purchased during the Great Recession to drive down mortgage
rates and push investors to risk assets like stocks and corporate bonds.

Almost a year after President Trump had taken office, he considered
re-nominating Yellen for another term; but on November 2, 2017 he nominated
Jerome Powell to succeed Yellen when her term ended on February 3, 2018. Powell
assumed office as the Chair on February 5, 2018.

Since Trump took office, the interest rate has risen 7 times (to date), and
is expected to rise 2 or 3 more times in 2019 ... hence, the crazy ups and downs
in the stock market. (e.g. Trump announces a new trade deal, stocks go up. The
Fed announces a rate hike, stocks go down. But with a booming economy and a low
unemployment rate, this would be the best time to raise rates and negotiate
better trade deals for the long term . . . as opposed to doing so in the middle
of an economic downturn).

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

This is a photo of my dad from 1969 when he spent his 43rd birthday in Vietnam, which was just before he came home to us in California. He passed away in 2007. I never had the chance to say goodbye to him; and I still mourn for him every day.

My dad was born and grew up poor on a small farm in the South during the Great Depression before later joining the U.S. Navy to see the world. He became an onboard radio operator on the ship he was assigned to, which was deployed to the Korean War. As a kid (and as a young man), he had the nickname "Red" because of the color of his hair.

After he returned home from the war, he was stationed in San Francisco, California (where he met my mom, who also called him Red). She and my dad were both stationed there while serving in the Navy. Me and my kid sister were later born at a nearby Army base in San Francisco.

After my mom left the Navy, my dad had transferred from the Navy into the Air Force. Occasionally he would be away from the family on temporary duty assignments (TDY) to places like Greenland and Guam. Sometimes he'd be gone for 3 months to a year at a time. That's how it is with military life: many painfully sad family separations, and then usually many joyful family reunions.
It's an emotional roller-coaster. It's not just conscripts, enlisted personnel and officers in the military that sacrifice for this country, so do their spouses and children.

While growing up, my younger sister and I have been stationed all across the U.S. and abroad, including Hawaii and Germany. We attended almost as many schools as we attended grades — and we were almost always "the new kid" in class. We didn't have long-term friends that we can say we grew up with, because we were always moving — friends were left behind. It can be a
lonely life. Sometimes, as a family, you only have each other.

But our parents eventually separated in 1966 while we were living in Germany, and then later officially divorced while my dad had volunteered to serve two tours-of-duty in the Vietnam War. Maybe my dear mother just got tired of being left alone for so long; and then afterwards, maybe my heartbroken dad had decided to join the war to deal with his own feelings of grief.

So my mom, sister and I flew back to the United States, and from an airport in New Jersey in a rented Rambler, my mom drove us across the country to California, where we (and later in 1967, a little baby brother) had all lived . . . until two years later, when in 1969, my father returned to the United States from Vietnam. He came to California to get me (the "incorrigible" teenage son who had been skipping school and drinking), and he drove me back across the country in a green 1963 Studebaker "Lark" to live with him at his new post on an Air Force base in Massachusetts (where he later taught me to drive in his brand new 1971 Chrysler when I got my very first driver's
license).

My dad was a strict father, but he was also a loving father too. In my last year of high school, I worked in a cardboard factory at nights and came home late . . . but my dad almost always left me a warm plate of food in the oven before going to bed at night. Then he'd wake up early the next morning to make me breakfast before I went to school. He offered to put me through college when I graduated, but instead (like an ungrateful son) I dropped out of high school and moved out on him. We had a big fight. It wasn't a pleasant departure. Regrets? I have many.

A couple of years later, after I had moved out of the house that we once shared together — and while we were both still living in Massachusetts — my dad had been stationed to Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was his very last post in the Air Force before he retired. At the time, I didn't even know he left the State, because I hadn't stayed in touch with him; but I later visited him in Cheyenne — and he took me to Frontier Days (an annual rodeo), where he had volunteered to be one of the ushers. My dad had always loved Country and Western music, so he was in his element here.

While stationed in Cheyenne, my dad also worked as a real estate agent (while also performing his duties in the Air Force). He was always an ambitious man. He'd buy fixer-upper homes, renovate them himself, and then flip them. The modest 3-bedroom house he had bought for us in California was built in the same year I was born, and it's now worth $500,000 today (even though it's still a modest 3-bedroom house).

All his life my dad was always involved with something: in Hawaii he scuba dived and road a motorcycle, and he used to give rides to all the neighborhood kids on his electric scooter. He coached little league baseball, high school basketball and pee wee football. He played on many bowling teams and had a slew on trophies. He hunted, he camped, he fished and he boated. He belonged to the Rod and Gun Club. He even did a little snow and water skiing. He really lived life to the fullest. And he was always the first to travel anywhere in the country when it came to visiting family and friends — whether they were ill,
or to attend a funeral, or to celebrate a holiday. You could always count on my dad. He was a rock.

My dad had retired as a Chief Master Sergeant after about 30 years of military service and moved back to the South to live near his hometown, where he bought 5 acres of land and built himself his "house on the hill", living out his remaining years near his childhood family (siblings, nieces and nephews) before he passed away 30 years later. By then he was driving a Cadillac DeVille for long trips and an old Ford pickup for local errands.

(Below) It might have been in early 2002 when the whole family had visited dad at his 3-bedroom brick home on the hill where he used to live alone. I had only visited him here once before in 1989. Now I wish I had visited more often.

All throughout his life, most of my cousins used to call my dad "Uncle Red". But when he and I used to live together in Massachusetts, all his friends used to call him "Rusty" (because his red hair was no longer red) — or sometimes they would call him "Chief" (after his rank in the Air Force). But my friends and I always used to refer to him as "my old man" . . . although I always called him "dad".

The night my dad died in April 2007 was also the last time I spoke to my mom. She offered me no condolences because for the previous 2 years, she and I had been permanently estranged. Then she passed away 11 years later in September 2018 — and I never had a chance to say goodbye to her either. My mom was 82 when she died earlier this month. But today would have been my dad's 89th birthday, so I'm posting this song "My
old Man" (by the Zac Brown Band) as a tribute to him.

(Below) I was informed that upon her request, my mom's remains will be cremated and her ashes spread in the woods somewhere (no location was given); but at least I know where my dad is. His final resting place is in his hometown, right
next to his parents' grave in their local church cemetery. I hope one day I will join them there. (Because, as in my mom's case, it seems that being left alone in the woods would be very lonely.)

These days I miss my parents very much; but I was a terrible son. I rarely ever sent them a birthday or Christmas card. And rarely did I ever call them; but most of the time, they always remembered me. And my old man, he almost always slipped me a little cash inside the cards. I could always count on my dad. Everyone could. He was a rock.

(Below) Just a tiny few of the many cards my dad had sent me over the years. I moved so many times that the vast majority were lost, but he remembered every single holiday. He never held a grudge. He never stopped loving any of us.
And no one ever stopped loving him. (I didn't.)

Respect and love your parents while you still can, because in the blink of an eye they could be gone forever (like tomorrow), so hug them now; because if not, then you'll have to live with that regret every day for the rest of your life
— and you'll be haunted by your shame.

(Below) This photo of my dad may have been taken by me during the Christmas holiday when he visited us in Las Vegas in 2004. It would have been the very last Christmas that our entire family (me, my mom, my dad, my sister and my brother) had spent together — and this is also the last photo that I have of my dad. But the very last time I actually saw my dad was back in 2005, also during the Christmas holiday. I picked him up outside the house that my mom and I used to share together (also pictured below), because by that time she and I had a big fight and we became permanently estranged earlier that year. So I picked my dad up in front of the house and I drove him to a nearby pub for a chat and a bite to eat. Then about an hour later I dropped him off outside the house — and after that, I never saw him again.

So today, I just wanted to say:

"Happy birthday dad! --- and happy birthday for all the other birthdays I missed. I know I didn't say it very often before but, I love you dad. I should have told you more often when I had the chance. I'll always regret that I didn't. Rest in peace dad. You were the best old man that a son could ever wish for."

Sunday, April 29, 2018

In 2016 I transitioned from Bernie Sanders (who was running as a Democrat) to Donald Trump (who ran as a Republican). But I don't trust either party.

For numerous reasons, many of my previous blog posts will contradict how I now feel . . . because I have "evolved" . . . but if Trump kills Social Security and Medicare, I will evolve again.

I have been very busy re-arranging my life and moving these last few months, so I haven't posted here very often; but who knows, maybe soon one day I'll get back on track and begin posting every day again. But much shorter versions of my current daily rants can be found on my Twitter feed >>> https://twitter.com/BudMeyers99

Friday, October 13, 2017

* Here is an Update to the Update on November 11, 2017: The new Senate
tax brackets per
CNN shows those earning between $60,000 and $91,900 (the real MIDDLE-CLASS
for single tax filers) will see no change in tax rate at 25%

Blogster-at-Large

Bud Meyers writes about the economy, politics, Social Security, corporate outsourcing, labor statistics, the REAL unemployment rate, taxes and tax evasion, government and corporate corruption, and the plight of the long-term unemployed.

Update: In 2016 Bud transitioned from Bernie Sanders (who was running as a Democrat) to Donald Trump (who ran as a Republican). But he doesn't trust either party. His previous posts may contradict how he feels right now for numerous reasons . . . he's "evolved" — and if Trump kills Social Security and Medicare, he'll evolve again ;)